Celani Sikhakhane
A would-be ANC councillor was gunned down hours after being called up to testify at the party’s provincial dispute committee this week.
Sthembiso Dlamini was shot dead by unknown assailants on Saturday. He was from ward 1 in the kwaMbotho area in Harding, in the Lower South Coast region of KwaZulu-Natal.
Dlamini launched a dispute to the ruling party following this month’s municipal elections, after his name was taken off the councillor candidate list before the election.
On Saturday morning, he received a call from someone by the name of Samke in Seme House, the ANC provincial office in KwaZulu-Natal, who asked him to testify at a dispute committee meeting on Monday.
“After that we had a meeting with other comrades at the local shop. Then later he was told that there’s a car that was all over the area looking for him,” said a source who did not wish to be named for fear of his life.
Alarm bells rang and Dlamini and his comrades immediately knew that he was in perilous danger.
“We advised him to go home and pack his clothes and go into hiding. At around 7pm, he left us to fetch his clothes and other stuff from his home.”
However, the hitmen were waiting for him when he arrived.
“Unfortunately it’s where he met with the killers, who shot him several times,” the source said.
Dlamini’s brother Mkangala Dlamini said: “during the shooting, he tried to run to our sister’s home. It’s where we had organised a vehicle to transport him to St Andrews hospital. Unfortunately that’s where he took his last breath”.
Mkangala confirmed that his brother planned to attend the dispute committee meeting on Monday.
KZN ANC spokesperson Nhlakanipho Ntombela said he is still trying to get more details from the lower south coast regional leadership.
SAPS spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbhele said the investigation is ongoing but no one has been arrested so far.
Dlamini is one of more than 800 councillor candidates who have put forward complaints to the ANC regarding the removal of their candidacies prior to the election.
Dlamini has also joined a rapidly growing list of victims of political killings. Dozens of councillor candidates were killed in the months leading up to the elections.
